Jess Hurley Scott’s meticulous photorealist paintings are painted entirely in reverse, by hand- on multiple layers of acrylic. Her proprietary technique of layering intricately painted panels, spaced in routered acrylic framing blur the line of two-dimensional painting and sculptural art. This recent work focuses on water; illusion, perception, and the underlying emotional draws of the sea are all important themes. Scott uses her own photographic reference, deconstructing her composition into layers utilizing translucency and depth to create her own reality and a unique interpretation of landscape in paint and pane. Her scale ranges from near miniature scale vignettes to dramatic, sweeping seascapes.
Scott was born in Islip, New York in 1978. Raised south of Boston, she was a teenage muralist, later receiving her BFA from Syracuse University in 2000. Afterwards, living in New York City and later Boston, she worked as a product designer which heavily influenced her craft. Using some of the same design programs and pulling from her experience as an industrial and textile designer, she experimented with painting on the reverse of glass. During this time, she began separating the composition into multiple panels and spacing each layer eventually developing her technique into the dioramic paintings she currently builds.
Scott has exhibited in various galleries and museums from ARTcetera Boston, to the Woodward Gallery in New York, NY, the Quidley Gallery in Nantucket, the New Britain Museum of American Art in New Britain, CT, the Muscarella Art Museum, and the Minnesota Marine Art Museum in Winona, MN. She is featured at the Sunne Savage Gallery in Winchester, MA, the Woodward Gallery in New York, NY, the Marine Arts Gallery in Marblehead, MA and Star Gallery in Northeast Harbor, ME. Scott currently lives in Scituate, MA with her husband and daughters.
